The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-27
POPULAR SCIENCE.

Iodine, hitherto known in. nature only
now found in free state in the water Of
Woodhall Spa, near Lincoln, lin England.
The water is colored decided brown by
the iodine. ...
The government of India now main
tains 131 weather observatories. From
these special study of the influence Of
forests on climate has been made, and the
results confirm the theory that rainfall Is
most abundant over wooded districts.
A mitrailleusc is about to be: tried in
the Austrian army which weighs forty
eight kilos and can be carried on 9 mans
back, and which will fire 1000 bullets in
minute and half. As a defensive
weapon it is thought to be without q
rival. RS
The chief veterinary surgeon of tho
British army, DR.. George Fleming, finds
sufficient experimental evidence to con-
vince him that smallpox and cowpox are
not identical, as is generally believed,
and that the virus of one will not pro-
duce the other.
Pita fibra, Mexican product, is found
largely in Honduras. 1t grows.ip canes
from five to twelve feet high and from
two to three inches in diameter. Efforts
are being made by the Mexican Govern
ment to encourage its cultivation. The
Indians use it for the manufacture of
boots and shoes, nets, fishing lines, hal
tiers and cans. Mats of great beauty,
some of them valued as high as $50 each,
are made from it. 1t also makes good
imitation silk.
And now Nicolaicr, q student in
Flujges laboratory, claims to have dis
covered the special bacillus or micro
organism causing lockjaw, and Bruger
puts forth claims that the disease is also
due to the ptomaine 'tetanine" produced
in certain stages of putrefaction. This
is deinit chemical compound which can
be isolated by appropriate chemical pro.
cesses. When injected beneath the skin
skin it will produce disease developing
all the phenomena of lockjaw.
Correcting common errors concerning
the Eskimos, Mr.. John Merdoch points
out that there is no evidence that tho
women have plurality of husbands; that
the people do not live in underground
dens, keeping up their internal hest BY
enormous meals of raw blubber, washed
down with draughts of lamp-oi; that
they do not torpidly doze through thei!
long night, and that they are not at all
dwarfsh in stature. The winter houses
of snow are usually built upon the sur
face, the food is chiefly cooked, oil i
used much the same as among civilized
people, and the activity Of the villages Il
not lessened by winter, whose darkness
has been exaggerated. -
1t seems strange that out of more than
12O, 900 species of plants known to
botanists only about $50 have been put
to use by man. Yet this proportion Il
! much greater than in the animal world,
from which only some 200 species have
been selected, while the animal kingdom
reckons millions of species. De Candolle
names 247 useful cultivated plants, Of
which A appear to have been cultivated
for more than 4, ZOO years and 81 for less
than 1900 years. The plants of modern
adoption are chiefly artificial folders, and
within the last 1000 years men have
commenced the cultivation Of not single
species that can rival maize, rice, tho
sweet potato, the potato, the bread fruit,
the date, cereals, millets, sorghums and
the banana. .... .s.'-a<